Instrumental
CD and Other Review

Review: Lang Lang in Paris (SONY)

Editor’s Choice, Jan/Feb 2016 – Instrumental It has been clear for some time that Lang Lang has grown into a sensitive, thoughtful musician. He was always an excellent technician and a marketing department’s dream: reading the blurb accompanying this release you might assume that no pianist ever recorded anything in Paris before. My research suggests otherwise. With his huge Chinese fan base, Lang Lang is the most well-known classical pianist on earth. Some condemn him for sticking to a narrow Romantic repertoire when he could be commissioning new work or rediscovering forgotten masterpieces. Certainly, while Chopin’s Scherzi are not easy to play, they are nothing compared to the challenges a pianist like Marc-André Hamelin routinely sets for himself. However, in his own way Lang Lang is pushing the envelope. He recently recorded Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto – much less user-friendly than the Third – and here he plays Tchaikovsky’s relatively rare set of 12 pieces, one for each month of the year, misleadingly titled The Seasons.  Appropriately, Chopin provides the stylistic model for Tchaikovsky’s piano writing, with its limpid melodies and touch of melancholy. Lang Lang allows his expressive palette full rein, whether it be in the relentless rhythmic patterns…

February 9, 2016